The Warriors picked Yaxel Lendeborg at No. 11, and he was named Las Vegas Summer League Championship Game MVP on Sunday.
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LAS VEGAS — When the Golden State Warriors selected Yaxel Lendeborg with the 11th pick in last month’s NBA Draft, the 23-year-old still couldn’t quite believe it. For a young man rarely at a loss for words, the pick, by one of the league’s premier franchises, was hard to comprehend.
“Honestly, I didn’t even have any words,” Lendeborg told The Athletic at the beginning of his Las Vegas Summer League run. “I was just in such shock at the fact that these guys actually took a chance on me. When I worked out here, they were super nice. They were telling me everything I wanted to hear — but a lot of the teams were doing that, so I didn’t know if it was gonna be true or not.
“These guys actually believed in me, so I’m like, ‘Man, I really have the opportunity to play in the NBA for a prestigious organization like this.’ It’s like, ‘Damn, I can’t believe this.’ It was just an emotional time for me. The only words I had was just my tears, in a way.”
Lendeborg’s emotions were present again Sunday night in the form of a big smile across his face, as he earned Las Vegas Summer League Championship Game MVP honors. Lendeborg, who acknowledged after the draft that he was hopeful the Warriors would take him, finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds in a 94-90 Golden State win over the Memphis Grizzlies and No. 3 pick Cameron Boozer.
Now that his dream has become a reality in recent weeks, he’s made a solid first impression on his new team. His shot, the one that helped him become a first-team All-American last season at the University of Michigan, looks ready-made to help immediately. Lendeborg has a comfort level from the outside that usually takes young players years to grow within their respective games.
Lendeborg isn’t the typical rookie, given that he will be 24 once the season begins, but he also carries himself differently than most young players in that he doesn’t shy away from the spotlight and isn’t afraid to say whatever is on his mind. There is an ease within his game that he brings to the floor in the way he finds his shot in the rhythm of the offense. He has a laid-back nature off the floor that should serve well within the framework of the Warriors’ veteran-laden locker room.
When asked if there was a player he watched as he matured within his own game and hoped he could model himself after, Lendeborg’s answer was the man the Warriors are still hoping to land this season.
“I definitely would have to go with LeBron,” Lendeborg said. “He’s been doing that at the highest level since he was, like, 10. And he’s had so much adversity on his back. He’s the reason why I don’t believe that pressure’s real. He said it in an interview, and just the way he said it, it’s, like, maybe it really isn’t real.
“Maybe I’m just playing myself with this. He really motivates me.”
Like James, Lendeborg uses his physicality to overwhelm smaller opponents at times. That became clear as soon as the 6-foot-9, 240-pound big man debuted in the California Classic earlier this month and showed that there were other NBA-ready facets to his game. He continues to get reps as a secondary playmaker and wants to grow in that role to help take pressure off his new teammates as another option with the ball. His size should also allow him to become more comfortable down low as a rebounder, aside from what he can do offensively.
After watching Lendeborg’s summer games, one of the biggest questions involves how he will do defensively in his first NBA season. Even at his size, Lendeborg didn’t impose his defensive will on the Vegas games. Whether that becomes a recurring trend during the season or just a factor of playing against less-talented individual competition remains to be seen. What’s clear is that Warriors personnel have quickly grown to appreciate Lendeborg and are confident he will make the requisite improvements in his game as the season rolls along, including on the defensive end.
“From the day I met him, right after the draft up until now, he’s been very open to coaching and wanting to be coached and wanting to know how he can get better,” Warriors summer-league coach Khalid Robinson said. “He’s a very coachable guy. When you sit down and watch film with him, he’s very attentive — he asks questions — so it’s exactly what you want from a young player trying to grow in his game.”
Speaking of other young players who want to grow their respective games, second-year guard LJ Cryer looks poised to take the role of Pat Spencer this season. Spencer signed a two-way deal with the Phoenix Suns earlier this summer after earning a standard contract with the Warriors midway through last season.
Cryer is an NBA-level scorer with the ability to provide a spark off Steve Kerr’s bench after spending most of last season with the Santa Cruz Warriors in the G League. As Cryer noted prior to the beginning of summer league, his biggest key is continuing to stay healthy after missing a chunk of NBA games last season because of a hamstring injury. He said he has changed his diet and is hoping to stay on the floor more this year.
“When I’m healthy, I’m able to help the team,” Cryer said of the message he got from the coaching staff at the end of last season. “It was a lot of guys unavailable this year, and with me being a younger guy, I just got to be more available. Then, just build off what I did last year, continue to make shots and be more confident in my game offensively.”
A hamstring injury got in the way of LJ Cryer’s opportunity for success last season. He’s hoping good health will be key in the Warriors turning things around for 2026-27.
Aside from Lendeborg’s and Cryer’s emergences, Malevy Leons was another player who had some nice moments during his summer-league run. Leons will never put up eye-popping numbers in a box score, but he plays hard on both ends of the floor and makes a difference in his ability to impact the game in a variety of areas. He’ll likely bounce back and forth between the NBA and the G League, but he figures to gain even more trust from Kerr as the season plays out.
Second-year guard Will Richard has noticeably bulked up since last season ended. He’s also been open about hitting a wall at the end of his first season and needing to push through it. He earned Kerr’s trust early last year, but he’s got to show he can contribute every night at the NBA level.
Gonzaga big man Graham Ike looks as if he can play in the league at some point. But now that the Warriors have signed Charles Bassey for big-man depth, Ike looks as if he’s going to have to work his way up from the G League.
While second-round picks are usually on the fringes of any team, Lajae Jones really struggled to make much of an impact in his first few weeks as a pro. The late second-rounder looked a little overwhelmed in his first few summer-league games and still has to show what his NBA skill set will be. He played a little better near the end of his Vegas run, but he figures to spend a lot of time in the G League.
The good news for the Warriors in their summer run is Lendeborg looks like he can play, which is a positive sign for a veteran team that needs him to find his footing quickly. Like he did last year, Kerr will need to lean on his younger guys to play a lot of minutes when the veterans sit. Lendeborg appears ready for the challenge and is looking forward to doing whatever he can to help his new team.
“For me, I’m gonna do anything that the team needs,” Lendeborg said. “As for right now, for this specific team, it’s more so being a secondary playmaker, hitting open 3s when needed obviously and just taking the pressure off some of the older guys. Steph (Curry), I know he gets double-teamed, triple-teamed, fouled, hacked all the time. So it’s, like, maybe (in) the chance when he gets tired, I can relieve that pressure for him.
“So, just trying to be an easy outlet in a way. Do whatever’s needed.”
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Nick Friedell is a Senior Writer for The Athletic covering the Golden State Warriors and the NBA. Nick spent 14 years at ESPN covering the NBA, most notably as a reporter as well as a TV and radio commentator. He is a graduate of The Newhouse School at Syracuse University. Follow Nick on X @NickFriedell.
